Pedersoli Gibbs

I'm using DDEPP (double diameter elliptical paper patch) bullets designed by Arnie/Beltfeld for my Sharps (excellent results), but some months ago I acquired a Pedersoli Gibbs and decided to use the same DDEPP bullet sized down to be loaded correctly in the 36" barrel. After adjusting the paper thickness and the bp loads, I found that this extraordinary 525gn bullet shoots very well both with my Sharps and Gibbs. In the attached picture you can see my last target at 200 meters and 3" x 1.5" grouping with the Gibbs and another 4" x 0.5" group with the Sharps.
Thank you very much dear Arnoldo for these results, 1 bullet for 2 different rifles!

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Nice shooting! So you are sizing the bullet to eliminate the bigger rear section and make it the same all the way down? It seems to work well.

Yes, except the bigger rear section, I'm using the same 16:1 alloy too, it works!

Claudius, if you would, could you tell me what the width dimension is on the octagonal rear portion of the barrel?
Thanks.

@Good Cheer, I'll check it tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by Good Cheer

Claudius, if you would, could you tell me what the width dimension is on the octagonal rear portion of the barrel?
Thanks.

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the octagonal rear portion width: 31.5mm

Very well done!!! I have wanted a Gibbs for a long time. Someday I might have to pull the plug and get one.

As Idahoron said you have to wait a long time to get one of the Pedersoli Gibbs rifles. It took me about 4 years to finally find one at a reasonable price. I was able to find one in Texas and the original owner was shooting short range matches with it, maximum out to 100 yards. It came with the brass funnel, their grease groove bullet mold, two range rods and the mid range tang sight setup. Max I have shot mine is 300 yards and I use 90 grains of Goex FFG, 0.060 fiber wad and Doug Knoell's solid bullet lube. The bullet is either Pedersoli's 525 grain bullet or my BACO Creedmoor 540 grain bullet, both are pure lead. The only rifle I have that is more accurate is one I put together with a Ron Smith gain twist barrel a couple years ago and it has a 12 power Unertl scope.
John

Nice [emoji106]! That’s my idea of a Rifle!


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Here is an item that will cause some thinking....in the papers that came with the Gibbs I finally bought were instructions on how to load and shoot the rifle with the Pedersoli mold bullet. It is a flat nose grease groove bullet, cast in pure lead. Pedersoli said to load the powder with their funnel/tube, do not compact the powder charge and set the pure lead bullet lightly on top of the powder charge??!! Way different than my black powder cartridge loads (45-70 w/ 68 grains) and in looking back over results from the muzzle loading world championships there were shooters that actually did use a loading setup as recommended! I found that with a 100 grain load of Goex FFG and loaded as Pedersoli says to do, my 300 yard targets looked the same as my other bullets.
John

Here another target with the Pedersoli Gibbs, this time the rifle was loaded with 85gn of swiss n.3, 20gn more than before, preparing for a longer distance: 600 yds.
I started to lube my PP bullets with a thin layer of Ballistol

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Nice shooting Claudius, here is what I do for a newly acquired rifle or even with the 1858 Remington C&B revolvers I got. First I find someone or more people that shoot my new firearm and see what they do for load, bullets, ETC. Since you are in Italy if it were me I would visit the factory to talk with the people who make the gun. Since I am in Southern California I can't easily do that so I use the method my late mentor told me in great detail to do. First I read any maker's papers to see what they recommend. Then I get my handy "Lead Sled" to hold the rifle so I am not in the equation. Get out my note book and set up 6 to 8 different loads, maybe 10 of each and do the same with the wad if you use one, then select the bullet(s) I want to try. I try to make sure they are bore riding size and the Gibbs rifling might have sharp edges so be careful.

Since you are hitting the 200 yard target pretty well I would work on getting the bullet impacts all in the center and pay close attention to every variable and where the impacts are. Also I always try to make sure there is little to no wind and I diagram how each bullet impacts and do I need to wipe between shots. Since you are using paper patched bullets the bore should not be bad but the Pedersoli Gibbs has a "patent breach" and should be wiped out each shot. I would note if the rifle changes any during the testing since the Gibbs has a single trigger it can get some residue build up and should always be 2# which is what the come from the factory set at. That is the pull set by international rules and is different that a double set trigger most Sharps have. Paper patched bullets are used by all the American team shooters and most long range shooters here in the States. Good luck and lets see some 10x's!
John

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Originally Posted by Claudius

the octagonal rear portion width: 31.5mm

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Thank you sir.

So the Gibbs should have a 2 pound trigger?
Mine is 4.5 pound and I asked the dealer here in OZ and he says all the ones imported here have to have that by law.
How can I lighten the pull?
Could I carefully grind the sear spring thinner, would that do it?
Any ideas appreciated.
Keith

Many years ago I had a nice Gibbs rifle. It shot like it had eyes! Was talking to Val Forgett who was Mr Navy Arms. Told him that I had an original Gibbs rifle. He like to flip! He immediately asked if I would show it to him. We met and he really liked the rifle. I liked trading with Val. He told me my rifle was just what he needed to present to Pedersoli so they could reproduce the rifle. We did some swapping and Val ended up with my original Gibbs. Never gave it another thought until years later my wife and I decided to tour Europe. Val Trompia that is a Province of Brescia is home to many fine gun makers. My wife sent e-mails to several Italian gun makers located in Brescia. Alot of them did not care about our visit request.. We were invited by Beretta, Uberti, and Pedersoli. Caesar Guerini did not respond. We visited the three companies. When at Pedersoli I saw my original Gibbs rifle hanging on the wall. They explained they made their reproduction Gibbs from the rifle Val Forgett Rifle. Navy Arms was the first company to offer a fine reproduction of the Gibbs. If one has a chance a visit to these gun companies is well worth the trip. Beretta was so accommodating. The Beretta museum is awesome !!!!

When I had my Pedersoli Gibbs rifle that I bought from Buffalo Arms when they first became available in the states. I sized down Paul Jones Creedmoor bullets to .451” from .459” using Lee size dies in various sizes to get them to .451”. It got boring knocking down 10 Rams for 10 shots on the silhouette range,it was wonderful to experience. The stock developed a crack from using one those “Golden Rods” in my safe for humidity control, really dumb idea. Highly figured wood doesn’t like low humidity, live and learn. I had the crack repaired by a very competent stock maker in WA state who did a great job. Sold the rifle after getting my first Shiloh.
Pedersoli is the only rifle company that uses “Mauser Steel” for the Gibbs rifles and one other of their top shelf rifles as it’s expensive to make and machine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Keith

So the Gibbs should have a 2 pound trigger?
Mine is 4.5 pound and I asked the dealer here in OZ and he says all the ones imported here have to have that by law.
How can I lighten the pull?
Could I carefully grind the sear spring thinner, would that do it?
Any ideas appreciated.
Keith

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So I got the spring on to the grindstone and tapered the lower leaf from 4.1mm down to 3.5mm wide for a start. That brought the pull down to 3 lbs. I will run that for a while and see how it feels.
Keith